Here are guidelines and checklists to facilitate a better onboarding programme.

Purpose

Onboarding is the planned process by which newly appointed employees acquire the necessary company-related knowledge, skills and behaviours to get settled and become productive as soon as possible. Research shows that effective onboarding leads to employees experience greater job satisfaction, performing better and staying on loner in the organisation.

Content

This tool includes four sections:

Onboarding checklist

Draft letter of welcome from the CEO

Six-month onboarding programme template

Onboarding feedback questionnaire

Application

Evaluate your organisation’s onboarding processes using the onboarding checklist to identify areas with room for improvement.

Plan an onboarding programme by customising the generic example to match your company’s needs. Introduce a ‘buddy’ system for all new recruits, including rewarding buddies for their effort and commitment.

Survey new recruits on the effectiveness of the onboarding programme, using the onboarding/orientation feedback questionnaire.

Begin by asking the following 12 questions to assess how well your organisation’s onboarding process for new recruits is working:

1

Does the onboarding process begin at the final stages of the selection interviewing process, when some of the new recruit’s team members meet in the final interview (hopefully someone among them is the new recruit’s future ‘buddy’) ?

2

Are new recruits communicated with the made to feel they were specially selected and do they receive a warm welcome before they arrive for their first work-day?

3

Does the onboarding process inspire in new recruits a sense of pride in having joined the organisation?

4

Are new recruits given a strategic view of the organisation so that they understand the organisation’s vision, mission, values and culture right from the start of their tenure?

5

Is there a ‘buddy system’ in place where an existing staff member assumes the responsibility of playing a supportive role during the new recruit’s induction into day-to-day organisational formalities and procedures?

6

Is compelling ‘story-telling’ an important way to initially communicate the organisation’s values, culture and other important qualities?

7

Is the company’s orientation programme appropriately focused on the needs of the new recruit, designed and implemented in easy-to-understand modules, interesting in content and interactive in nature?

8

Is the induction programme scheduled at the correct time, i.e. neither too soon nor too late after the new recruit joins the company?

9

Is relevant supporting information readily available to the new recruit on the company intranet or other systems?

10

Is a mentoring programme in place where new recruits can choose (and be accepted by) a mentor to support their longer-term career development within the organisation?

11

Are practical mechanisms in place for new recruits to regularly and easily communicate how they are doing and felling in their first six months of employment?

12

Are managers committed to the business case and the importance of onboarding new recruits, and in playing their supportive inducting role effectively?